So I have had many many 817's and pretty much all but one needed more compression on SSB audio. They all sounded poorly when I had the SSB mic gain up all the way, but I ran it that way to be "somewhat" heard. So on a limb, I bought one of the compressors. I had to turn down the mic gain to 50 (what they suggest) and left the pots on the SOTA board where they were. I cannot believe how good this accessory is. Went from unreadabel to hearing me fine. What a great accessory! thanks for a great product! de KG9H

Following a disappointing start with this product, the company supplied me with a replacement pcb! This was quickly assembled and tested. Once I had re-crimped the RJ45 cable, all worked very well with a marked increase in talk power.

Having had a RF processor inside the Mic housing on an earlier 817, I find this just as good and more flexible as it can easily be removed

I purchased this kit from Funkamateur.de. It looked prety good on arrival and only took an hour to add the extra components to the board. It drew the correct current when powered up, but when connected to the 817 it did not allow any audio from the Mic to reach the Rig. A little investigation revealed that all many of the SM components were dry jointed to the pcb. Looks like I have a Friday afternoon version! Do I waste my time fixing it or send it back? Hopefully when it eventually works it will be better than the manufacturing.

Really make a quantum improvement on an FT-817's signal; easily an S-unit's worth. As another reviewer noted, the boost is better than the OBP, and, more to the point for me--not subject to RF pickup like the OBP was. Bravo!
Highly recommended.

Got the 2.0 version of the DYC-8x7 model. Went together in 30 minutes or so. Only a handful of components to solder in. Awesome that all tiny SMD components were already mounted and soldered. Only one SMD capacitor to solder and it wasn't that bad to do. On the air with my FT817 is extremely noticeable. My external power meter indicates average power banging the top end of 5W where without it tends to bounce high and low with averages much lower. Listened in on another radio while talking and switching in and out was an obvious and dramatic improvement in "punch". Good audio reports on the air too. Wont turn a 5W radio into 100W but definitely makes the best of what you have. Ease of connection and built in tone generator are welcome bonuses. Its a shame the 817 didn't already have a processor as many QRP rigs like the KX3 do.

Had mine for about 6 months now and its transformed my 817. I get great reports on 2.5 and 5 watts out and i wouldn't be without it!

It's a simple self build project (i am by no means the best soldering bod in the world) and took about an hour to complete - i recommend that novice solder jockeys take their time as i did and you should be able to do this yourself. Good quality materials throughout with easy to follow instructions. Highly recommended and good value for money too!!

The latest version of this kit comes with a ready built RJ45 cable/plugs assembly between the unit and radio, so there are no issues at all with wire stripping. Assembly of the kit took 30 mins and set-up was very simple indeed. Even though the instructions are in German, these are not really needed: just set one pot (with the processor off) to a sensible audio level and adjust the second pot for the level of compression needed. On-air results are quite remarkable: whereas I'd often struggle to be heard before, I am making QSOs with ease and good reports. At 34 euros delivered to the UK this represents a very good value kit.

This processor is once again being sold as the DYC-8x7 and I received it soon after placing my order. VAT was automatically discounted when I checked out. The kit was VERY easy to assemble. I used some online translation tools to help with the German but it was very straightforward. Only because I have an oscilloscope on hand, I adjusted P3 to make sure the SSM2165-1 chip was receiving about 20mV of audio at pin 4, to place my audio in the center of the active compression zone. It was probably an unnecessary step but I wanted to make sure the gain distribution was correct. I then adjusted my FT-817 mic gain for proper ALC action - it ended up at "6" because the DYC8x7 puts out a hefty audio signal. Monitoring on a second rig, the improvement in punchiness of the ssb signal from the FT-817 was remarkable.